plate

• enPR: plāt, IPA^(key): /pleɪt/, [pʰl̥eɪt]

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• Homophone: plait
• Rhymes: -eɪt

From Middle English plate, from Old French plate, from Medieval Latin plata, from Vulgar Latin *plat(t)us, from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “broad, flat, wide”). Compare Spanish plato.

plate (plural plates)

1. A slightly curved but almost flat dish from which food is served or eaten.

   I filled my plate from the bountiful table.

2. (uncountable) Such dishes collectively.
3. The contents of such a dish.

   I ate a plate of beans.

4. A course at a meal.

   The meat plate was particularly tasty.

5. (figuratively) An agenda of tasks, problems, or responsibilities

   With revenues down and transfer payments up, the legislature has a full plate.

6. A flat object of uniform thickness.

   The most important and most expensive part of any solar cell is a silicon plate.

7. (especially Australia; metonymically, plural only) Vehicle license plates, registration plates.

   Synonym: rego plates (Australia)

   He stole a car and changed the plates as soon as he could.

8. A taxi permit, especially of a metal disc.
9. (historical) Plate armor.

   He was confronted by two knights in full plate.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 248:

     He hewd, and lasht, and foynd, and thondred blowes,
     And euery way did seeke into his life,
     Ne plate, ne male could ward so mighty throwes,
     But yeilded passage to his cruell knife.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 366-368:

     Two potent Thrones, that to be less then Gods
     Disdain’d, but meaner thoughts learnd in thir flight,
     Mangl’d with gastly wounds through Plate and Maile.

10. A layer of a material on the surface of something, usually qualified by the type of the material; plating

    The bullets just bounced off the steel plate on its hull.

11. A material covered with such a layer.

    If you're not careful, someone will sell you silverware that's really only silver plate.

12. (dated) An ornamental or food service item coated with silver or gold or otherwise decorated.

    The tea was served in the plate.

    • 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, V.i:

      The silver ore of pure Charity is an expensive article in the catalogue of a man's good Qualities—whereas the sentimental French Plate I use instead of it makes just as good a shew—and pays no tax.

13. (weightlifting) A weighted disk, usually of metal, with a hole in the center for use with a barbell, dumbbell, or exercise machine.
14. (printing) An engraved surface used to transfer an image to paper.

    We finished making the plates this morning.

15. (printing, photography) An image or copy.
16. (printing, publishing) An illustration in a book, either black and white, or colour, usually on a page of paper of different quality from the text pages.
17. (dentistry) A shaped and fitted surface, usually ceramic or metal that fits into the mouth and in which teeth are implanted; a dental plate.
18. (construction) A horizontal framing member at the top or bottom of a group of vertical studs.
19. (Cockney rhyming slang) A foot, from "plates of meat".

    Sit down and give your plates a rest.

20. (baseball) Home plate.

    There was a close play at the plate.

21. (geology) A tectonic plate.
    • 2012, Chinle Miller, In Mesozoic Lands: The Mesozoic Geology of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Kindle edition:

      Our planet's crust is split into eight major plates and many minor plates.

22. (herpetology) Any of various larger scales found in some reptiles.
23. (engineering, electricity) A flat electrode such as can be found in an accumulator battery, or in an electrolysis tank.
24. (engineering, electricity) The anode of a vacuum tube.

    Regulating the oscillator plate voltage greatly improves the keying.

25. A prize given to the winner in a contest.
26. (chemistry) Any flat piece of material such as coated glass or plastic.
27. (aviation, travel industry, dated) A metallic card, used to imprint tickets with an airline's logo, name, and numeric code.
28. (aviation, travel industry, by extension) The ability of a travel agent to issue tickets on behalf of a particular airline.
29. (Australia) A VIN plate, particularly with regard to the car's year of manufacture.
30. One of the thin parts of the brisket of an animal.
31. A very light steel horseshoe for racehorses.
32. (furriers' slang) Skins for fur linings of garments, sewn together and roughly shaped, but not finally cut or fitted.
33. (hat-making) The fine nap (as of beaver, musquash, etc.) on a hat whose body is made from inferior material.
34. (music) A record, usually vinyl.
35. (military) trauma plate.

    The SAPI plate in his vest protected him from the bullet's impact.

36. (slang, seduction community) Any of the potential romantic or sexual partners with whom a person keeps in touch as part of plate spinning.

    More plates means more dates!

• → Maori: pereti
• → Hindi: प्लेट (pleṭ)

From Middle English platen, from Old English platian and Old French plater, both ultimately from Latin plata (see above).

plate (third-person singular simple present plates, present participle plating, simple past and past participle plated)

1. To cover the surface material of an object with a thin coat of another material, usually a metal.

   This ring is plated with a thin layer of gold.

2. (cooking, photography) To place the various elements of a meal on the diner's plate prior to serving.

   After preparation, the chef will plate the dish.

   • 2011, “HYFR”, in Take Care, performed by Drake ft. Lil Wayne:

     I took her for sushi, she wanted to fuck / So we took it to go, told 'em don't even plate it

3. (baseball) To score a run.

   The single plated the runner from second base.

4. (transitive) To arm or defend with metal plates.
5. (transitive) To beat into thin plates.
6. (aviation, travel industry) To specify which airline a ticket will be issued on behalf of.

   Tickets are normally plated on an itinerary's first international airline.

7. (philately) to categorise stamps based on their position on the original sheet, in order to reconstruct an entire sheet.
8. (philately, particularly with early British stamps) To identify the printing plate used.

• chrome-plated
• chromium-plated
• electroplate
• nickel-plated
• plating

From Middle English, partly from Anglo-Norman plate (“plate, bullion”) and partly from Latin plata (“silver”), from Vulgar Latin *platta (“metal plate”), from feminine of Latin *plattus (“flat”).

plate (usually uncountable, plural plates)

1. Precious metal, especially silver.
   • 1864, Andrew Forrester, The Female Detective:

     At every meal—and I have heard the meals at Petleighcote were neither abundant nor succulent—enough plate stood upon the table to pay for the feeding of the poor of the whole county for a month

   • 1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, →OCLC:

     At the northern extremity of this chill province the gold plate of the Groans, pranked across the shining black of the long table, smoulders as though it contains fire […]

From Spanish plata (“silver”).

plate (plural plates)

1. (obsolete) Silver or gold, in the form of a coin, or less often silver or gold utensils or dishes.
   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

     […] realms and islands were
     As plates dropp’d from his pocket.

2. (heraldry) A roundel of silver or argent.

• -petal, Patel, leapt, lepta, palet, pelta, petal, pleat, tepal

• IPA^(key): /plat/

plate

1. feminine singular of plat

plate f (plural plates)

1. very small flat boat

plate (plural plates)

1. (Canada, informal) annoyingly boring
   • 1999, Chrystine Brouillet, Les Fiancées de l'Enfer, →ISBN, page 204:

     On va se mettre à ressembler aux gens qui racontent leur crisse de vie plate dans les émissions de télé débiles.

     We're going to sound like those people who tell their frickin' boring lives on those idiotic tv shows.

2. (Canada, informal) Troublesome

• “plate”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

plate f (plural plates)

1. (heraldry) plate, roundel argent

• palet, pelât, petal, leapt, pleat

plate f (5th declension)

1. plate
2. table-leaf
3. (music) record
4. (music) disc
5. (computing) board
6. (computing) card
7. (computing) printed circuit board
8. (computing) circuit board

• dēlis
• plāksne
• plātne
• (computing) drukātās shēmas plate
• (computing) shēmas plate

From Old Norse plata, from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “broad, flat, wide”).

• IPA^(key): /plaː.te/, [ˈplaː.tə]

plate f or m (definite singular plata or platen, indefinite plural plater, definite plural platene)

1. plate (thin, flat object)
2. record (vinyl disc)

• (flat object): skive

• kokeplate
• plateselskap

“plate” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse plata, from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “broad, flat, wide”).

• IPA^(key): /²plɑːtə/

plate f (definite singular plata, indefinite plural plater, definite plural platene)

1. plate (thin, flat object)
2. record (vinyl disc)

• (flat object): skive

• kokeplate
• plateselskap

“plate” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• platte

From Vulgar Latin *platta, *plattus.

plate oblique singular, f (oblique plural plates, nominative singular plate, nominative plural plates)

1. a flat metal disk
   • c. 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Érec et Énide:

     De mars d'or et d'arjant an plates

     Gold coins and disks of silver

2. a flat plate of armor

• → Middle English:
  • English: plate
    • → Maori: pereti
    • → Hindi: प्लेट (pleṭ)
  • Scots: plate
• → Irish: pláta

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (plate)

Middle English, from Old French plate.

• IPA^(key): /plet/, or sometimes IPA^(key): /plɪt/ in the Borders

plate (plural plates)

1. bowl

   Can A hev a plate o soup? ― Can I have a bowl of soup?

plate (Cyrillic spelling плате)

1. inflection of plata:
   1. genitive singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative plural

plate (Cyrillic spelling плате)

1. third-person plural present of platiti